What Femi Adesina Told Me In Aso Rock… Off Record!

ORI MARTINS 

On several occasions in the past I had maintained that the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Femi Adesina, was at various times my editor, executive director, Deputy Managing Director and ultimately, the Managing Director and Editor in Chief at the Sun Newspapers. He was outstanding in all the positions. He was the pioneer Editor of the Daily Sun and the newspaper was an instant hit. Adesina understands the practical importance of encouraging his editorial team and all around him.

 As the Editor of the Daily Sun, Adesina worked harmoniously with all the workers at his disposal. Even when he would not attend favourably to your request or problem, he would still make you feel appreciated and well balanced. A newsroom expert, he knew all the reporters and non editorial workers by name. As a matter of fact, he acted like a father and we worked like his children. 

There were instances I was almost got fired but Adesina, after thoroughly investigating the cases discovered I was not guilty as charged and set me free. On one particular incident when he was the Managing Editor, he called me into his office, and said: “Ori Martins, I know you are a hard working and dedicated journalist. But I have also confirmed that you are stubborn and troublesome. Let me warn you for the last time, if any case comes here again against you, I will approve of your sack whether or not you are innocent. Go and cooperate with your senior editors not minding if they are right or wrong”.  Bringing his administrative ingenuity to practice, Adesina transferred me to a new beat and that was the master stroke that solved the problem. 

Again, when I made up my mind to move to South East after I had put up a resignation letter, Adesina summoned me to his office and cautioned against my move. He warned me sternly and firmly advised that I would regret my moving to South East if really what I told him was the true reason of my resigning from The Sun family. Of course, I had already made up my mind to leave and so I never listened to him. However, I must confess that events of 2015 played out exactly the way Adesina predicted them. The import is that Adesina got it right while I was wrong. But I have no regrets whatsoever. 

Now, Buhari dramatically and sensationally defeated serving President Goodluck Jonathan and so APC sacked PDP as the ruling government. Meritoriously, Buhari appointed Adesina as his Chief Media Aide and it was among the first in the series. Since 2015, I have never agreed with Adesina again. As far as I am concerned, Adesina is now a politician. He is no longer the advocate of the masses who once wrote “We shall soon return to Aburi” in one of his columns which he regularly maintained on the back page of the Daily Sun Newspapers on Fridays. I now view my former boss as an Abuja based politician, who defends the policies and actions of the Federal Government even when they are anti people.

For instance, Ndigbo have complained loud that the inability of this present administration to grant it a representation in the security architecture is a clear confirmation of the fact that Buhari does not really factor in the Igbo interests into the national affair. This is an issue that even non Igbo personalities like Pa Edwin Clark, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Alhaji Yakassai have condemned and urged the president to address. But Adesina answered back that “the President chose his Security Chiefs based on merit and those he can trust”. That is, Ndigbo in the various security units are not qualified to be named security chiefs and they cannot be trusted? 

I met Adesina at the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Abuja, last week. And I asked him: “Sir, you are now a politician. You are no longer on the side of the masses. You have abandoned us and followed the people you once fought against”. Adesina moved his seat. Cleared his throat and directed his gaze straight at me and said: I am not a politician. I am a professional working among politicians. I do not have any political ambition. If I complete my assignment here, I go back to my profession because I am on leave of absence. At the expiration of this job, I will not contest for any elective position because, I say it again, I am not a politician. I do not agree with you that I have left the masses. The fact is that I am still with the people; the difference is perception, interpretation and approach. I am the same person you used to know when we were together in The Sun Newspapers”. 

Of course, I fired the next round of question: “Sir, by our records, Buhari hates Ndigbo and why have you not advised him otherwise? Adesina: Our records do not say so and available facts do not support it. Rather, Buhari has genuine love for the Igbo people. Are you aware we are doing more 67 Federal Government projects in the South East? We compiled the lists of Federal Government appointees and discovered that there are more Igbo names than other tribes even as Imo State has the highest number followed by Ogun State. Again, in the first tenure, South East states had full-fledged Ministers while some states in the North served as Junior Ministers. The Constitution says every state must be represented in the appointment of Ministers and the President did just that. So, Buhari does not hate Ndigbo, he loves them”. 

You can glean from the above that Adesina parried the 15 Senior Managers at NNPC, who were promoted to Executive positions without Igbo representation. He did not talk about the Igbo Army officer, who worked in acting capacity but was sacked and Farouk Yahaya appointed as the new Chief of Army Staff. He did not include that for the first time in democratic Nigeria, an Igbo is not the President, Vice President, President of the Senate, Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker, Deputy Speaker or even Chairman of the ruling party.

Finally, I called Adesina’s attention to what is happening to Imo State currently and it is on leadership. However, he pointedly countered me and submitted thus: “No, no, no. After Governor Hope Uzodimma was declared winner, the PDP protested. After that, the party appealed for review at the Supreme Court. My point here is that Uzodimma has not been allowed to work by the opposition and some aggrieved APC members. Shortly after the Apex Court confirmed Uzodimma’s victory, we entered Covid-19 challenge. While Covid-19 is going down, this issue of gunmen reared their ugly heads and even the Governor’s house was attacked. You know what that means. Let me also inform you that Governor…came here and told us that they know who the gunmen are. Let us even ask this question: who are those that the Police have been arresting in connection with the shooting and killings – the IPOB members (but IPOB has denied this allegation on several times)”.